Welcome to the 19th week of Ask a Windows Expert, where you have questions and we get a resident expert right here at Make Tech Easier to get you the most concise and comprehensive answer possible. The instant you send an inquiry through our “Questions” form, you can rest assured that your answer is being researched to appear in the next segment of this continuous series. As long as you ask, it doesn’t hurt to get a clear answer, right? To submit your own question, click “Ask Our Experts Now!” on the right side of this page. Let’s get on with the questions we’ve received this week!

Q: What can I do if I accidentally installed Windows 8 as an upgrade to Windows 7 instead of a dual-boot kind of thing? How can I reverse this?

A: Well, there’s nothing to do once you install an operating system over another. There’s no way to roll back. So, if you would like to go back to Windows 7, we suggest (like you said in your email) to shrink your primary partition a bit and install Windows 7 on the new partition. This could be a dual-boot setting. Removing Windows 8 is another issue altogether, but you can remove it from the boot menu by configuring it via msconfig. To reach msconfig, type “msconfig” on the small search box in your Start menu. Once you press “Enter,” you’re in.

In the “Boot” tab, you could configure your operating system parameters to exclude Windows 8 and leave behind only Windows 7. After that, you could delete the System32 directory and any other directory corresponding to your Windows 8 installation.

Any further attempt to run Windows 8, momentarily, should be done through a virtualization environment like VMWare. Windows 8 release and consumer preview can be installed through VMWare 8. Earlier versions of VMWare do not support Windows 8’s features, and you might experience problems installing the x64 version. Our suggestion is to use VMWare 8 with x86 Windows 8.

Q: Is there a way to move a window while using “/nochrome” in Windows Media Center?

A: The short answer is “no.” The long answer is, “You can use the window in full-screen, which also allows you to close the media center properly.” Press “Alt+Enter” to enable full-screen mode. Under “/nochrome,” WMC doesn’t run like a normal Windows shell application, with a taskbar icon and all that sweet stuff. Unfortunately, you’re left with the inability to move the window or switch to it from the taskbar. It’s a tradeoff and there’s nothing you can do about it, unfortunately.

Q: Is Windows 8 Release Preview a leak?

A: Release Preview is not a leak. The Windows 8 Release Preview is Microsoft’s last showcase of the operating system before it releases its final build. This will show you what features you can expect to see in the final version. The Consumer Preview was just a form of opening your appetite and helping you get acquainted with the interface. They may still remove or add other features until the final release, but most of the things you see there are final.

Microsoft has officially made the Release Preview available for download at the end of May this year. If you would like to download it officially from Microsoft, click this link.

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